Which castle is advantageous against the Stronghold?

I hate playing as Orcs and against them. First, their development strategy is too simplistic: Attack, Leadership first, or Luck at most, and that's it, run and clear everything with Centaurs. The only thing that might help them at the start is Machines, but it seems like it will only burden them. Just played as the Dwarf Ingvar against Garuna... it was a nightmare. We met on week 3 on XL RMG. I had 88 Harpoons, 90 Warriors with 15 HP, Surprise Attack, and Endurance. He had 90 Centaurs and 30 Goblins. I was level 8, he was level 13. My stats were 0/3/6/3, his were 12/6/2/6. It's hard to level up a Dwarf, and Garuna was already swinging her saber... So you think, how can I manage to learn Runes and have someone cast Celestial Shield... P.S. I got my least favorite matchup, by the way: I'm a Dwarf, the opponent is an Orc... :// boo.